The winter days are crisp and cool, and they are getting longer and longer, and the New Year has begun. There is something powerful about the beginning of the new year. It feels a bit like a clean slate where that which was is in the past and a new bright future lay ahead. It usually doesn’t take too long, however, for that shiny new feeling to wear off, for old habits to come back and hopeful practices begin to fall away. I have a poster in my home that reminds me that’s God’s grace and love are new every morning and “great is God’s faithfulness.” One reason we gather each Sunday is to be reminded that each day is a new day and a new beginning; whatever we have done in our past that we think darkens our future, is covered by the Light of Christ. This sets us free to be the who God wants us to be. May your New Year be bright with God’s light, grace and peace.